Birds and hikes

On last Thursday we went with Dwight and Carol to Whitewater Draw, southeast of here about 100 miles by road, to see the Sandhill cranes. They winter there, by the thousands. (We went through Tombstone on the way.) They are grey and quite large. We arrived in late morning and the cranes started arriving, after having spent the morning out foraging, at first in small groups . More small groups could be seen coming in towards the pond from a distance at different altitudes. The circled overhead like planes stacked up over a major airport.

The flocks grew in size and then, led in by a small gaggle of Arctic and Rosser geese, began to land. After an hour or so, there were thousands on the ground, grouped tightly together and making quite a bit of noise. Sometimes they would startle and bunches would take off, often to circle and land again. Quite neat.





In addition to the cranes, we also saw some barn owls and a couple of bald eagles.



On the way home we went through Bisbee, an old mining town now inhabited by former hippies and other alternative lifestyle types. It looks to have lots of art galleries and a huge hole in the ground, left over from its copper mining past. We didn't stop, but will definitely be back there one of these days.

On Saturday we hiked in the desert at Suguaro National Park East with our Sahuarita hiking group. Very nice. I got to wear my new Indiana Jones hat.

On Saturday, too, Anne Buddenhagen and her husband Frosty Glass (yes) were here for dinner. During cocktails, we were on the patio and a bobcat walked past our back fence and eyed us boldly. It was a little scary. But also a new sighting for our menagerie. Also, an owl flew into a tree in our arroyo and posed for a few minutes before flying off to dinner.

A few days before the bobcat, we saw a coyote walk by just beyond our wall. No photos, unfortunately, of either creature.

Note that the close-ups of the cranes and the owl are pictures Dwight took through his spotting scope.

Pictures from Arizona

I've put a collection of pictures up on our website. Note that most, though not all, have captions; you may have to scroll to see the captions.
The website is at: http://www.aldixon.net/ And the link is called Arizona Miscellaney.

Jane's Random Observations

• The Mexican influence here is one of vivid, beautiful colors – we stopped at a restaurant in Albuquerque on our way out that used the traditional Mexican vibrant colors but in a contemporary way. Bright lime green, yellow, turquoise and red linoleum squares covered the floor, the same turquoise squares were laminated on table tops, and the walls were painted red, yellow, and lime green. It was really cool,all very sleek and simple. It’s moving me away from my natural beige leanings. Walls in our house are all white, so I am tempted to do some painting (rather, have Arthur do some painting . . . .). We bought the living room and dining room furnishings from the prior owner, and she was more of the Spanish conquistador, hacienda persuasion (brown, brown and more brown). Transforming the place into my light, bright, colorful new vision will be a challenge.

• Men in the grocery stores – retired couples appear to regularly shop together. (Is that enough to make you rethink the whole retirement idea?) Just not used to seeing gray haired men that look like corporate execs in the cereal aisle. A telling “Men are From Mars” moment was when I overheard a woman saying to her husband “we have to ask where it is – we have been up and down every aisle a dozen times!”.

• Our neighborhood seems deserted, and I think I have figured out why. Cars must be kept in the garage, which makes it seem like no one is home. There is not a lot of activity on the street – partially because there are no kids, but many neighborhoods don’t have kids out during the day anymore. But most neighborhoods we have lived in have cars parked in the driveway or on the street. Now I realize those cars represent a symbol of life on the planet!

• The number of houses being built in the Green Valley area alone is amazing. I am sure other areas of Arizona are building as many or more – preparing for the baby boomers.

• People here are very nice and friendly, everywhere we go.

• We were excited by how up-to-date the local movie theater is. We plan to get back into the movie-going habit that our home theater in Atlanta broke. It is good for us to get out of the house – especially for me, since that is also my workplace.

• One way I am gauging where I am on the “how settled are we” scale is how many switches I have to push before the light I want comes on. I am making real progress. This may be an area in which we have exceeded the point of diminishing returns in our quest for convenience – being able to control each light (and ceiling fan) from several different locations leads to serious control panels. Especially for us elderly folks, it might be better to have one light switch close to the light it controls. We could get some exercise walking over to the switch. On the other hand, mastering the switches may be an effective adjunct to crossword puzzles for maintaining an active mind . . . .

• I am bothered that we are in an acquiring mode again when the trauma of our elimination of mass quantities of goods in Maryland is still vivid (even though we did donate them to charitable causes). All of this purchasing may be good for the economy in the short run, but can’t be good for us or the world in the long run. However, it is hard to reject creature comforts once you have become used to them. The good news is there is a terrific thrift store here in Green Valley that serves a needy population in the area – we have made some purchases there, and we can take things there when we inevitably revert to a getting-rid-of-things mode.

The Holidays

We had a terrific holiday season!

Kate arrived on December 22, later than planned because her flight from Richmond to Atlanta was cancelled. We did quite a bit together during her visit. On Friday we went up to the Sonoran Desert Museum west of Tucson. We thought some acquaintance with the flora and fauna of the area would be a good introduction to the area. We had been eager to get back there ourselves because we had good memories of the museum.

We were not disappointed. The museum has grown quite a bit since our last visit and is both educational and enjoyable. We saw many different varieties of cactus, mountain lions, snakes and javelinas, though the last were asleep in the heat of the day and not very entertaining.

On Christmas Eve we went to Tubac and Tumacacori, a Spanish mission south of Tubac. After dinner al fresco in Tubac we returned to Tumacacori to see the luminaria display. There were over 2000 luminaria throughout the mission grounds. We had to stand in line to wend our way through the lights, but it was quite dark and the Milky Way was visible, along with many other stars, of course, right above our heads. Volunteers served hot chocolate and cookies at the end. Our friends Dwight and Carol met us there and took some of the pictures I’ll put up either here in this blog or on our regular website (www.aldixon.net). Dwight and Carol joined us for Christmas dinner, following a dip in the pool for Kate, Jane and Dwight!

We went shopping and sightseeing in Tucson, Green Valley and Mexico – Kate’s first time there.

Kate departed on Thursday for Las Vegas, where she was meeting Mark for New Year’s Eve. What a great visit!

On Friday, Jane’s brother Joe, wife Nancy, Will and Rick arrived from California for New Year’s weekend. During their visit was also visited the Desert Museum and did some hiking in Madera Canyon and saw King Kong. We managed to make it until midnight on New Year’s Eve, though it was tough. The boys had to sleep on blow-up mattresses, Rick in the living-dining room and Will in the kitchen. I admired their ability to stay asleep as many of the rest of us went about our morning routines.

Since the departure of our holiday visitors, we have been moving towards establishing some routine. We did another hike, his time to Pena Blanca Lake. And this week our yoga class starts and I’m going to try to get into a Spanish conversation course here.